The mass rush by citizens to purchase ammunition ahead of an Obama / Biden unconstitutional (and unlawful) executive order banning such sales has resulted in the near-depletion of available ammunition as follows:

• Rifle rounds are completely gone everywhere.
• Shotgun shells are somewhat more available but still limited.
• Handgun rounds are limited and becoming difficult to find.
• 22LR rounds are completely gone. Lesser-known varmint rounds such as .17 HMR are still available.

The backlog of ammunition demand now exceeds one year. The backlog demand for rifle magazines now exceeds one million units. The demand for rifles themselves has reached record levels, with a one-year backlog on production just to meet present-day demand.

It just so happens that Lake City is also a main source of component parts for aftermarket reloaders and resellers of ammunition, too. With the military buying nearly everything Lake City is producing right now, the resellers and aftermarket reloaders are finding their supply is getting mighty tight, too.

To make the situation a “perfect storm of uncertainness”, we’re finding that the commercial ammo market is growing exponentially, with consumers wanting more and more ammo, raising the demand curve even higher. We talked about what might be causing this in the last WebBench – basically, more folks shooting the AR-15, with more need for ammo. Other causes are the “election effect”, a possible presidential fiat to ban military rounds to the civilian market (I do not believe this to be a real factor, but it is a motivator in the market place), and finally what economists call “scarcity demand”.

Attention F.B. fans: to follow will be several IMPORTANT Info updates about the status of the gun industry currently, followed by an INVENTORY UPDATE: We traveled to Texas for Industry meetings concerning the shortages, here's what we were told.

Smith & Wesson-is running at Full capacity making 3000+ guns/day-mainly M&P pistols. They are unable to produce any more guns to help with the shortages.

RUGER: Plans to increase from 75% to 100% in the next 90 days.

FNH: Moving from 50% production to 75% by Feb 1st and 100% by March 1. Remington-Maxed out!

LWRC:Making only black guns, running at full capacity...can't get enough gun quality steel to make barrels.

Springfield Armory: Only company who c an meet demand but are running 30-45 days behind.

AMMO: Every caliber is now Allocated! We are looking at a nation wide shortage of all calibers over the next 9 months. All plants are producing as much ammo as possible w/ of 1 BILLION rounds produced weekly. Most is military followed by L.E. and civilians are third in line.

MAGPUL is behind 1 MILLION mags, do not expect any large quantities of magpul anytime soon.

RELOADERS... ALL Remington, Winchester, CCI & Federal primers are going to ammo FIRST. There are no extra's for reloading purposes... it could be 6-9 months before things get caught up. Sorry for the bleak news, but now we know what to expect in the coming months. Stay tuned, we'll keep you posted...

Related commentary from Bob Owens:</ div>
They didn’t know when they’d be getting anything back in stock, from magazines to rifles to pistols. Manufacturers were running full-bore, but couldn’t come close to keeping up with market demand. It wasn’t just the AR-15s, the AK-pattern rifles, the M1As, and the FALs that were sold out. It really hit me when I realized that the World War-era M1 Garands, M1 carbines, and Enfield .303s were gone, along with every last shell. Ubiquitous Mosin-Nagants—of which every gun store always seems to have 10-20—were gone. So was their ammo. Only a dust free space marked their passing. I’ve never seen anything like it.

February 5th, 2013, 06:12 PM

oneshot

Wow, Sniper, that is very sobering news, and also a little sad.

February 8th, 2013, 07:09 PM

MJClark

Wow... That is scary.

February 8th, 2013, 07:35 PM

crossfireltd

Re: Major ammo and handgun manufacturers...any word from anybody

It seems that we are going to have a long wait before we can purchase any substantial amounts of ammo and at what price.
:cool:

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February 18th, 2013, 10:40 AM

msb45

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJClark

Wow... That is scary.

Totally agree, imagine if we had half the guys we had in WWII shooting half of what we used to. And people think we have a strong military. Our military complex is too busy with high tech. But in the end it always comes down to a 19 year old with a rifle.